Highly Objective and Completely Random Winner

As Willie Stargell attests, we have twice the amount of fun into today's blog post. We'll get to the winner from Saturday's celebratory 750th post contest in a moment, but first let's get to a nice PWE from Brian, the mind behind Highly Subjective and Completely Arbitrary.

First up we have a couple of serial numbered cards of Aramis Ramirez. 

 The card on the left is #218/219 and belongs to the 2009 Topps Tribute set.  I must say, it is probably one of the more strikingly beautiful cards I've held in my hand in some time.  The 2011 orange paper ARam is #161/250 and another nice addition of one of the best Cubs third sackers in the history of the franchise. Seriously.  I would easily put him in the top five with Ron Santo and Stan Hack.

The Billy Williams card also hails from the high end Tribute set.  I'm not sure how Brian is picking these up, but if he's been busting boxes of Tribute then I think we need to be closer friends!   LOL!

 Mark Pawelek.  He was the Cubs number one draft pick in 2005 and I remember thinking, "We drafted a high school kid from Utah?"  Utah is not a state known for it's prep baseball teams like Florida, California, Texas, and Arizona. The drafting of Pawelek was one based upon projection and sign-ability, due to the tight purse strings of the Tribune Company. Needless to say, the Cubs missed on yet another #1 pick.  Sigh. 

 Jaime Navarro was nine games over 0.500 in two seasons with the mid 90s under-achieving Cubs.  Not bad when you think about.  I like this card because it features FOUR DIFFERENT pictures of Navarro in three different uniform tops.  Two with facial hair and two without.  It's an equal opportunity baseball card and it's super shiny.  And, we all know how I feel about shiny!

Brian also sent two cards of the Cubs most recognizable pitchers in recent memory.  I love when pitchers wear eye black.

Brooks!  Originally I thought Brian sent me a duplicate of the same card, so I snapped a picture of both sides.

 After cataloging my new piece of cardboard I found that one was stamped in foil on the front with "Future Stock."  These are numbers 37 and 38 in my Kieschnick collection, of which I can thank Highly Subjective and Complete Arbitrary for 14%.  Brian is my biggest Kieschnick card supporter!

Lastly, after some truly great additions to my collection, comes the best.  Keep in mind all of these came from a PWE!    Wow!

My run of Topps wintage Ron Santo cards is nearing completion!  With the addition of this beautiful 1964 card, I'm now only missing his 1961 and 1968 editions.   Thanks for a such a wonderful PWE pack with Cubs mojo, Brian!

Alright. Let's move on to the winner of the contest.

I asked everyone who they would cheer for in this year's playoffs if their team was out of the running and I was a little surprised by the number of Astros supporters out there. Their success is a nice story, so I totally understand the love. But, I think they would be my third choice in the AL and fourth overall behind the Royals, Blue Jays, and Pirates.

Here's the winner:

Congratulations, Night Owl!  I'll try to have your Dodgers out to you before the weekend.